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Saturday, 25 June 2005
THE ROCK NEVER STOPS@THE JOINT,LAS VEGAS 06.24.05
Last night I dug out the hairspray,mascara n' attitude and saw the Las Vegas stop of the 2005 Rock Never Stops tour,featuring Firehouse,Quiet Riot,Ratt & Cinderella.Everyone can say what they will about "hair metal","butt rock","cock rock",whatever,but we all know you love it,everyone haz at least one album by one of these guyz and,if the attendance and response of the crowd iz any indication,people still wanna have nuthin' but a good time.And the guyz last night didn't dissapoint.They delivered.Big time.
Firehouse opened the show with thier brand of light weight rock.No fancy outfits or anything remotetly threatening,the guys did just what they do-play rock n' roll.I waz never a fan,or particularly informed about them.I recognized only about 2 toonz,thier big hits,but they did what they do well-warming up the crowd for the more sleazier bandz to follow.
Quiet Riot waz next.I've ran into vocalist Kevin Dubrow many timez over the yearz,but never actually saw the band play live,so it waz a suprize to hear that they delve more into classic 70's British rock than thier contemporaries.Dubrow doez a pretty good Rod Stewart imitation,even down to the leapord skin suit he wore.His voice waz powerful and much bluesier than I expected.They owe more to The Faces & Free than Kiss & Van Halen or Aerosmith,which most of the other 80's bandz copped from.Quiet Riot waz a pleasent suprize.
Ratt,on the other hand,I've seen live,in it'z many incarnations,many timez.Thier set waz fast and right to the point.Warren DiMartini iz an excellent guitarist.Jizzy Pearl,who basically singz for every band ever when thier original singer izn't available,handled Stephen Pearcy's vocal parts well,but I'm kind of sick of seeing him.Like I said,I see him at least 4 or 5 timez a year here in Vegas singing for some band or another.Just kinda burned out on him.
But the main reason I waz there waz to see Cinderella,who I wazn't that big of a fan of til I saw them a few yearz ago with Poison,and they blew me away.And last night waz no exception.For a band that gets together every three or four yearz for a tour,they got thier shit together!Like Kevin Dubrow,Cinderella's singer Tom Keifer wearz hiz influences openly on hiz sleeve.Aerosmith and AC/DC quickly spring to mind,but I get the feeling that Cinderella iz capable of making music that could go way outside the lines of 80's metal.There'z a flavoring of cajun blues,country and more in thier approach.I wish they'd get together and do a new album without the restraints of hard rock,cuz I get the feeling they could really put out something special.And for a song that'z your basic 80's power ballad-"Nobody's Fool",the performance of the song waz intense and emotional az hell!It made the hair on my armz stand up.Fucking excellent.
So,here waz a night of four bandz that prove that the kidz still wanna rock.The screamo and nu-metal bandz of today should pay attention.I doubt they'll have the following and dedication from the fans that theze bands had last night,20 yearz from now.They should only be so lucky.
Ragz Rates Firehouse a:5.0
Ragz Rates Quiet Riot:7.80
Ragz Rates Ratt:7.0
Ragz Rates Cinderella:8.50
Posted by ragzdandelion
at 3:42 PM PDT
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